Speaker 1: The show you were about to listen to was originally
a live stream actual play on twitch dot tv slash
onmade gaming. Horize Minions and welcome to this unmade gaming production.
Join us on our adventures as we take a jump
to the left, a step to the right, and time
work beyond the veil to find out exactly what happens
when you take the path less traveled in this original
Tails and the Loop actual play Adari Twilight Age of Always.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, my friend, And just so everybody knows,
the Michigan that I believe has already been completed, I
have already baked into the cake. So if and when
we get another one, please let me know because I
have three potential additions can add to all of this
to make horrible shit happen. So all right, everybody, This
is a special episode of Atari Twilight Age of Always.
This is where the Keystones, who have journeyed into the
Narnia esque Age of Always, lost one of their own
early on, as JD decided to go off on his
own with his ever star wart companion, the One Ring,
to see exactly how they could tell a tale and
how they could help in this the Age of always,
and so this is the journey that is transpired between
this solo character while the rest of the group has
continued on to Emerald City and I guess points north,
and now we get to find out when and how
and in what manner JD got from here to there
and back again. So, my friends, before we get started,
I want to introduce the player today as we look
over at Bacon Bacon, just to remind me and everybody else,
tell us, please, who you are, who you'll be playing,
and if you could give us some of the SPECIs
of the Tales of the Loop system by Free League.
For instance, you know your name of your character, what
his playbook is, what is his character class happens to be,
and then of course what his drive problem and pride
the three kind of ingredients of the narrative of your backstory.
And take it away, my friend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so bake if ive o. But on Twitter, I
go by as told by Dice, been taking kind of
a hiatus from a lot of online stuff as I've
become a dad in the last year and a half.
Here I am playing Jesse JD. Davis. He is fourteen
years old and considered a bookwarm my iconic item is
the one ring my drive is. I want to create
my own adventure like the stories I read. The problem
that I guess I've had is my dad doesn't approve
of my love for pop culture. It'd rather me be
in sports. And my pride is kind of my knowledge
of movies and TV and pop culture of the like. Yeah,
I'm excited to get into it. Nervous, excited, fantastic. That's
the perfect combination.
Speaker 2: And I will say this too, since our keystones are
here in spirit as well, that it was on a
Saturday in October way back when that Scarlet threw a
touchdown pass to one Jesse Davis while we had the
Keystones in the stands cheering them on, and it was
almost to the day that we started all of this.
So on October eighth of nineteen eighty eight was the
day in which this all started. And I thought it
was special that again we continue our tail after our
hiatus on a Saturday in October as well, my friends,
So let's get ready to dive back into the age
of always. And because we have a long way to
go and a short time to get there, my friends,
I wanted to make this short and sweet, but respectful
of JD, because this is a moment where he leaves.
He steps upon Eternity Road. An Eternity road claims each
traveler that steps on individually, it claims each traveler that
steps upon it in a group. But in this moment,
Jesse is alone, with the exception of the ever present
one ring talking inside of his head. But Jesse is
approaching a group that he had seen, that he had
been watching from afar. Scrying upon a group consisting of
a wounded faeryman who used to be the guide here
upon Eternity Road, and a smaller man in a conical
hat and robes, and a beautiful young woman and an
older lady. These three seemed to be in perfect health.
But the fairyman has taken ill and now lies with
an a tent. The information being given is that he
is near death, and JD needed to act. He needed
to act quickly, and act he did, and my friends,
in those final moments before he stepped upon the road,
there confronted with Donovan, one of the residents of the
Age of Always. Donovan looked at JD and said, you
show promise you will do well here and in these
echoes of the moments that have proceeded. If footfalls upon
the Eternity Road, we hear the exchange of the Ring
with JD as it reverberates through both this space and
the entire age, as it says, it's our story now,
and JD responded with rules are meant to be broken.
And the Ring said, but not ours, And JD said,
because we're always right. Sometimes there is only one right path.
Sometimes there is only one perfect moment. Sometimes there's only
one person for the job. This is a tale of
sometimes welcome one and all to atari Twilight Age of
Always Keystone. JD. You are upon Eternity Road, and as
I describe to you upon our last meeting, many many
moons ago, that you were walking towards what looked like
an interstate highway, you know, a two lane highway, but
with an interstate overpass kind of ringing it. And as
you went through and under that overpass, you emerged on
the other side, and you see ahead of you camped
on the road itself, on the asphalt. Right on the
lines of Eternity Road. You see a large white kind
of a luxurious tent, and you see these people that
are kind of were milling about but upon your approach,
they all turn and they all smile, and they start
to approach you, the smiles getting bigger, and the one
in the conical hat and the beautiful young lady begin
to run towards you as if they know you, my friend.
Welcome back to the age of always, Welcome back to
the table, Welcome back, my beloved keystone member. And what
does JD do?
Speaker 3: I think he kind of maybe takes a step back,
and he says, well, what's going on? What's going on?
Speaker 2: As soon as they see your kind of hesitancy, they
stop immediately and kind of like they soften their posture
and they realize that maybe in their excitement they came
off as being a little bit too aggressive. It's almost
like a synergy between the two of them as they
act almost in concert. And the man with the conical
hat steps forward and he says, the queen said that
you would find us, and we in turn would help
you find what you need. You've been waiting for you,
my friend.
Speaker 3: He thinks about it for a second and he said,
is he doing okay?
Speaker 2: Both of their faces fall. He is not, but he
he knows that you are coming, and he g manners manners.
I am Schmendrick Wizard to she who sits the mobius throne.
And this is the lady Amalthea, and this is the
lady Molly. And the older lady steps forward and interrupts him.
It's just Molly, Molly grew. Now misgrew if you're nasty,
and they look at you, and Schmendrick holds his hands
up and says, it's okay. We know who you are.
You're the walking dude, the jaunting dude. The queen said
to call you JD.
Speaker 3: S she knows a lot about me already. It's nice
to meet all of you. Yeah, JD would be nice.
Speaker 2: Very well. And to describe them a little bit more
now that you're closer to them. The wizard, as he's
proclaimed himself, has a very wizard esque conical hat. He
has the long robes of a wizard, and he is
also wearing a pair of what looked like welding goggles,
you know, the old school kind, with like the leather
that rims around the outside and very dark sunglass kind
of lenses within them. They're strapped to the back of
his head, and you can tell immediately what he needs
them for because every once in a while, you see
a spark kind of fly off of his fingertips, and
you see that maybe like of each hand, three of
the five fingernails are blackened. But even when each of
them kind of pop in Sputter, none of his other
companions seem to react to it. But it does make
a bit of a moment, you know. So do me
a favor, and if you wouldn't mind, pick any of
your skills that you think would keep you from jumping
when the first of these energy pops go out. And
this is for nothing more than flavor for your companions
to see you for the first time. So would it
be force or maybe force of will something that you
would like to use. You can use anything from I'd
even go so far as to say you could use calculate,
you know, something that you could see coming along. But
I will also take force, and I will also take
comprehend as a way to kind of steel yourself against
this surprise.
Speaker 3: I was thinking comprehend. I think it makes the most
sense for me to understand kind of like what it
was prior.
Speaker 2: To Absolutely, my friend, yep, go right ahead, there we go, absolutely,
And it's almost as if the sparks come off. And
the funny thing is it's because you have such a
relationship with the one ring and you're so kind of
in sync with the one ring, you feel the one
ring jump as if the one ring didn't expect that
to happen. And it's odd because it's a ring. You
can't seem type a physical reaction to it. But it's
almost like you hear the ring gasp even though you don't,
but you know it did. Take that for what you will,
my friend, is you keep a steely exterior. And as
the first of Schmendrick's kind of pop spark, fireworks go
off and he shakes the hand that it emitted from. Apologies.
I'm excited.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're not going to burn me with that,
are you?
Speaker 2: Oh? Heaven's no, no, I am myself yes, But I
mean it could if you were holding my hand, or
we were shaking hands or you know, ring around the
rosie what are some other And the lady, the beautiful girl,
kind of escorts him back and she looks at you
and smiles and just says, he means, well, he won't.
He's never burned me, and she starts moving back towards
the camp as the older lady Molly steps forward and
she says, are you okay?
Speaker 3: No one asked, Yeah, I think I'm I think I'm okay.
I was just in need of a change. And while
I've been learning looking watching, he seemed like he needed help.
I wanted to provide some help.
Speaker 2: She has a She has what would be called a
non poker face. If Mollie is feeling something, you can
easily read it across her features, and you can see
that there is a measure of both sympathy and empathy.
And you can tell that she immediately respects your honesty,
if that makes sense. No need for a role here.
Like I said, Molly is an open book, and the
first paragraph could basically be summed up with she is
impressed with JD. And she looks at you and says,
he's been asking for you. He is delirious. He knows
you've been watching. Can I take you to him?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Please do.
Speaker 2: And she nods and she doesn't, you know, even look
back to see if you're following, But she takes you
to the Great White Tents. It's something that you would see,
you know, perhaps a sultan of old would have you know,
and opens the large kind of white flap that's weighted
at the bottom. Even though there is still here, it's
certainly not moving any more of the tent than the
tent wants it to move. And when you see the inside,
it's still brightly lit. You know, the white tent itself
conducting the light through in a translucent way. But there
is also a level of smoke inside, and you can
smell incense burning of some type. And upon a like
a rolled out rug with another roll underneath his head,
you see the man that you have been scrying upon,
the ferry man, and he is lying his turban off
to the side, his hands over his chest, and for
a moment you would think that he had already expired,
but you see the slow rise of his chest and
the slow fall. What do you do, my.
Speaker 3: Friend one, No, I'll walk over to him. I'll kneel down,
put my hand like on his chest, and I'll say,
I think help has arrived. What can I do for you?
How can I help?
Speaker 2: His eyes flutter open, and as soon as he sees
your face, he smiles, Huh, I know you would come.
I saw it in a dream.
Speaker 3: I actually think I always knew I was gonna make
it here eventually, although that was just my gut. No
dreams for me.
Speaker 2: Your got has served you well. Ask questions if you want.
My time is almost done.
Speaker 3: Where were you going here?
Speaker 2: I was told to die on the road here and
wait for you.
Speaker 3: Am I meant to take your place? Y?
Speaker 2: No, No, the the road has already chosen another. I
am to be stardust again, golden billion year old carbon.
Speaker 3: What would you like from me?
Speaker 2: I have been told that there is a path only
you can walk. I do not envy someone that must
walk a pack by themselves. But I have been there,
and you are never alone. Those that travel with you
will always travel with you. I fear that this will
lead to and he kind of with the first times
his lips aren't the only thing moving, as his hands
on his chest kind of indicate his body. This was
done to me. I fear that they are trying to
lure out the bishop.
Speaker 3: I don't think they all can do. I don't do
you know who did this year? Did you see him?
Speaker 2: He did not, but it was done. And you can
now see the black veinage in his neck that you
witnessed just a bit in the skry when you were
looking inside the cauldron, and you can see it disappear
down from his neck into his kind of loose white
shirt that he has on, and you can tell that
it must get worse the farther down his body it goes,
because you can actually see dark lines through the white
clothing that he wears, and you know that his skin
carries even darker pigmentation as what you can only guess
some sort of poison finishes its work. I don't know,
but the only one that they know could save me
would be the bishop. And she does not leave the cathedral,
and she does, then they can take her.
Speaker 3: Do not let them, Okay, I can try what I'm
gonna be honest, I I don't know what to do.
I want to do the right thing, but I don't
know where to go.
Speaker 2: He smiles. You are already on the road, and sometimes
wanting to do something and doing the right thing are
not the same.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. JD kind of sits up, like, kind
of straightened his shoulders, tries to take like a deep breath,
and he yeah, he he doesn't know if there's anything
else to say. Can I help you at least be
more comfortable?
Speaker 2: And you see him weakly point towards his pack and
you can tell it's his packets. Again, his entire kind
of color scheme seems to be white. And he points
to this great white pack that the contents have been
emptied a bit. But at the very top you see
a little box with a crank on the side of it,
and you see him just kind of point a weak finger,
and even much like Schmendrick's fingernails are blackened from electricity,
you can see that the poison has crept his fingertips
as well. And you aren't a doctor by any stretch
of the imagination, JD. But you can tell that he
probably can't feel with those fingers anymore. They they seem
pale and just weak. But he points towards this small
music box. O.
Speaker 3: Hey, I'll go over to it. I'll open it and
I'll crank the wheel and kind of set it down
next Je.
Speaker 2: It's interesting. What song does it play? My friend.
Speaker 3: M M, yeah, I don't know. I think it just
plays kind of like the tune of like a nursery rhyme,
something that's just sweet, it's nice to listen to. It
doesn't have words. I think it would be something that
would be pleasant if these were your you know, your
final minutes very good.
Speaker 2: So you put it down on his chest and you
cranked it. You hear that little just kind of a
tiny beat, you know, just maybe one note hitting and
carrying forward, No like or chstral arrangement or anything like that, obviously,
and you sort of recognize the melody a bit, but
it sounds, like you said, it sounds not like a
song or any type of musical construction. It sounds like
a fair like just a nursery rhyme, just a simple
song sung to children, which this was his father sung
this to him when he was young. And as he
sits there and you hear that just that lulla by
that beat you hear coming from his lips, just a
one or two words, and you hear him say, she's
got eyes seemed to me remind me childhood memories. And
you hear him say this as his voice gets weaker
and he falls asleep, and you can tell that it's
not the eternal sleep, because again, with the music box
now clutched in those kind of steepled fingers on his chest,
you still see his chest slowly rise and slowly fall.
The others are gathered at the mouth of the tent,
but they don't say anything. You can see their shadows
kind of falling over you and the ferrymen as they
kind of are silhouetted in the light of the falling day,
but they remain quiet, and to give you time, you
see each of the shadows kind of disappear until the
flat kind of closes out the square of light that
was illuminating them. What do you do, my friend? As
camp seems to be set and a fire has been
started along the road, You're not sure where they got
the wood, but would they have and it's burning? Ricky's
not here to tell you how they could do that.
Speaker 3: I'll take a second, I guess internally, or however, JD
has been speaking to the Ring, I'll say, And now
you can get scared.
Speaker 2: It's never been on any journey like this before. It's odd.
Name no longer feel like a trophy or a weapon.
I feel like a seed. I don't know what I
will grow into, but I feel promise.
Speaker 3: If you had to choose, what would you grow into.
Speaker 2: There is a pause as if the Ring isn't sure,
and then it knows with certainty, and you feel the
certainty because again there's nothing that can be hidden between
the two of you anymore your friend. I would like
to be your read truly.
Speaker 3: You know, I've asked myself the question. I just asked
you a million times. If I could grow up and
be anything, grow into something, what would it be? And
it's funny that I found it, But in a weird way,
I stumbled upon an adventure that I didn't know I
would have. It's been fun. Is it normal to be
scared all the time? I don't know. It feels normal, though.
I think about the story I read that you're in
and never expressly said that they were scared, but their
actions seemed to prove otherwise that they were the entire time.
Most of the books that I've read by Stephen King
that all the people are scared the entire time, but
they they stand up and do something. I think that's
what I wanted. So you need to help me do that.
Speaker 2: You feel a conviction led through you to my last minute,
I will help you. We can use the fear as fuel.
You can be everything you want to be.
Speaker 3: That's my hope. But but huh, that's my hope, and
I'm gonna I'll exit the tent. I'll go to the campfire,
I'll sit amongst my new companions and I'll I'll just say, uh, I,
I don't think he has much time left. I think
we need to get to the bishop as soon as possible.
Where were you all headed when you were with him?
Speaker 2: Schmendrick kind of gets ready to speak, but it's a
lady Amalfia who speaks up and kind of gently puts
a hand on Smndrick's thigh. And Hendrick, who seems to
again be excited. You heard several pops while you were
in the tent. He sort of shakes his head and
goes to sipping tea, which seems to calm him, or
at least you think it does, because the rapidity of
the sparks seems to decrease substantially upon some type of
relaxation for him. And she says to you, we were
told to come here by she who sits on the
movie's throne. We were told to follow the faery man
and that we would find someone who would help us
save everything. That's you, she smiles.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I hope I can be that person
for you, But how do you know it's me? How
do I know that that's me?
Speaker 2: They all look at each other, but there's not a
look of like, oh no, is this we in the
right place? Or confusion, or they look and kind of
nod and they say. She turns to you again, and
Molly nods and she looks down and she's drinking something.
But you're pretty sure it's not Tea. There's probably something
a bit stronger. But Lady Amalthea says that is the
mark of all great heroes. Uncertainty brilliance is thrust upon many,
but only true heroes question why you are who we
are meant to find?
Speaker 3: I know it just thinks for a bit, he says,
when would you all like to leave?
Speaker 2: You look over and Schmendrick puts his tee down and
for the first time you see him reach up and
pull like unclip the goggles and pull them off because
it's gotten too dark really for him to see now
and for the first time, and in fact, I'm going
to make you roll for this, roll for let me see,
give me an investigate if you would, my friend one
success easy enough to see as you. As Schmendrick pulls
off the goggles, you see one brown eye and one
blue eye. Roll contact for me.
Speaker 3: Please, no success.
Speaker 2: As always with the system that we have in play here,
my friend, you can reroll with the condition element coming in.
You can use your pride for a success. And I
don't believe you have any lock. Do you have any lock?
You should?
Speaker 3: I don't have any right now that I should anyway?
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah you should, because I think right at fourteen
you still have one. Isn't that what it is?
Speaker 3: Players?
Speaker 2: Anybody help me?
Speaker 3: Yeah? You tell me? No? Ya? Does anybody remember?
Speaker 2: Yes? We still have one? Yes, Okay, it doesn't matter.
You have a lock. If you want to use it,
I'll hold on to it.
Speaker 3: Who knows what's gonna happen in this next show and
a half?
Speaker 2: Absolutely so. As you see him take off and you
see the eyes the blue and the black, or the
blue and the brown, it takes you a bit to
realize as you sit there that you know this person.
You kind of for a moment, and it takes a
good half hour for this to sink in when you
realize that this is a thirty ish year old version
of Chris Witt or a much younger version of main
Street Jimmy.
Speaker 3: I think, as I realize, I'm going to say, Jimmy,
say is that you.
Speaker 2: The eyes get wide. I'm I'm I'm Schmendrick. I that
is my old name. How how do you know that?
Speaker 3: Well, I knew you or one of you. Maybe I
don't know. Things are weird. I just realized too that
you all know me, and I guess I know your names,
but I don't know anything about you. Well, I guess
I know a little bit about you, Schmendrick.
Speaker 2: But Schmendrick looks to his right and left. First, First,
where where where do you hail from? What village do
you live in?
Speaker 3: Garrett?
Speaker 2: You see tears spring from each corner of his eye.
That is where I am from, I know. And he
turns and looks at his companions. I told you, I
told you it would work. We are here, and they
kind of comfort him. They can see he gets very hysterically,
start to see kind of the energy sort of building
around his fingertips. Roll me another, investigate one for the
first time. Now you can see that as this energy
builds up in his fingertips, it's not exactly electricity. It's
a special bluish hue. And with the darkness, you notice
what it is. You know that Garrett had its lights
powered by it. You know that at one point Scarlett
had a backpack with some of it in it, and
you know that Optimus Prime desperately needed some of this
at one point, as you correctly identify the ener John
that is flowing through Schmendrick, I.
Speaker 3: Think he takes a pause on Schmendrick and he looks
to the others and he says, are you from Garrett too?
Speaker 2: The others? Oh no, heavens no, says the lady of Malthia.
I'm from the country, And Molly looks at the lady
for a second kind of side eye, and then looks
over at uh JD. You know, I'm just from the village.
I'm just I'm just me, And she seems disappointed in
that admittance.
Speaker 3: I'm just me too, so.
Speaker 2: That seems to brighten her up a little bit. You
see your spine kind of straight in a bit at that.
Speaker 3: Jimmy, when did you come across? And or John? Is
that that's what did this to you? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I'm and you can tell that, like there's still kind
of like each of them have a hand on his
shoulder kind of holding him, and he looks at you.
I I don't know, I I came here as a
small boy. I I I don't remember my town much,
but I got here and I met the queen and
she helped me and kept me in place. I was
jumping around to different places and I couldn't stop. And
you see him reach into his kind of the loose
robe and you see him pull out a medallion and
it's crystal. She gave this to me, and I haven't
jumped since. And you see that it is a crystal
representation of a four leaf clover.
Speaker 3: Ah, I'm what is Can I see that? Do you mind?
Or will it cause you to? Oh?
Speaker 2: You may see if I cannot take it off. And
he is on a chain, so he kind of comes
over to you and like gives you it and gives
you as much space as you can.
Speaker 3: What does a four leaf clover mean to you? Schmindrick?
Is it just luck?
Speaker 2: Luck? I think?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Isn't that the four leaf clover luck of the Irish end? All? That?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, to me, it's you know, I point to
one leaf a tricky and point to the other one.
There's scarlet Heather and me seems the first time I've
ever seen one of these was because Heather showed it
to me. So it seems odd that you would have
something that And he stumbles on his words and he stops,
and I think JD internalizes, like, maybe I am the
person for this job. There's two many things that connect
me to at least to Schmendrick right now. And JD
comes back to his senses and he says, who gave
this to you? The bishop gave this to you.
Speaker 2: The Queen, she who sits the Mobiu's throne. When when
I first arrived here, I was a little boy, and
she gave it to me. And I have been here
ever since in service of the Queen. I haven't always
been the wizard her witches on a mission, and she
was my teacher, and I they took her place while
she is away the Queen.
Speaker 3: Okay, I think that's okay. When we're ready, I think
we should well when we can, I think we should go.
We should go quickly.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And he goes to stand up and as like
he doesn't deliberately like yank the necklace away or anything
like that, but as it's slowly pulling from your like
kind of held fingers, just as it slips off, it
flips over, and you see on the back written across
each of the kind of the leaves. It says, never
say never.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm, okay, I'll JD's all sorts of confused in
the sense of like, how did how is this happening?
Kind of confused. I don't know why he would ask
himself himself that question, considering all the things that he's
been a part of and seen, how just a mere
thought of a clown pulled it into reality. But he's
still somewhat dumbfounded that his his stories have ended up
this way like a part of, you know, his life.
And he says, I I want to see the Queen
as soon as possible.
Speaker 2: And he looks back at Mollie. It's almost as if
they the two of them, Lady Malthia and Schmandrick deferred
to Mollie, who is by far, with the exception of
the Faery Man, the oldest person in this space. And
Mollie looks and says, we can get you to her.
Speaker 3: Okay, Oh, I don't want to leave, leave him just
in the tent alone. Is there anything that we can do?
Or I don't know what her is, what are his wishes?
I've watched him and I don't know him.
Speaker 2: The lady the young girl steps forward. He said he
would not see the sun again. I believe him. It
shouldn't be long now I will go and attend. And
as she walks off, you realize that there's a couple
odd things about the girl too. Is that she seems
to just be wearing what looks like an overdress, you know,
something that you know people might put on if they
wanted to protect their dress from you know, chores or labor.
It's almost like a full bodied apron type of thing.
It's very loose. It's certainly not something that you would,
you know, wear for any type of occasion other than work.
And she is also barefoot, and it's those feet that
you hear or not hear, but see silently move into
the tent, and again the tent flap closes, but this
time no light is conducted with the white tent. It
seems brighter in the beautiful weather and darkness of the
age of Always, but it's not dreary. But there is
a lack of hope. As the fire grows a bit dimmer,
and Molly says, we can wait for him to pass.
As callous as that.
Speaker 3: Sounds, yeah, I think we should do that. But and
as bad as it does sound, we should go directly after.
I think that there's we can't waste too much time.
Speaker 2: I agree, And unless there's something else to say, the
hour slipped towards dawn, and it's probably an hour before sunrise,
and you are either awoken or if you're already up,
you are gathered to the tent by the lady who
says it is time. Was JD sleeping?
Speaker 3: No? Probably not.
Speaker 2: Then, as Molly and Schmndrick kind of sleep. You see
them like right by the fire, you know, heads on
their packs. Strangely enough, they don't seem to be sleeping
in the tent. They are outside with you around the fire.
The lady comes out and she indicates, kind of like
the log beside you, the seat.
Speaker 3: May I please?
Speaker 2: She sits down and puts her hands like on her knees,
and her back is almost impossibly straight, with like perfect posture.
I believe it is his time. I am unaccustomed to
these things.
Speaker 3: Me too. I've never really been around anybody dying.
Speaker 2: That's a good thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I suppose so, although it seems inevitable.
Speaker 2: Now, too much death can change you.
Speaker 3: I guess that's true. I wouldn't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we must remember life. It is always preferable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so too. How did you get here?
Schmendrick mentioned he'd been moving from one place to another.
How'd you end up in this spot with us?
Speaker 2: Shmendrick helped me. I lost my people and he helped
me find them, and I owe him a great debt.
Speaker 3: Where are your people now?
Speaker 2: They're back in the country doing well, and she seems
so proud of that.
Speaker 3: I hope my people are doing well. I think they are.
What made you come on this journey? Just chosen, picked
out of the litter.
Speaker 2: I volunteered. I oh, Schmandrick, But this place is and
she kind of looks up at the incredible stars that
you don't recognize. This place is special. It tells you
things when you need to be told them. I was
told to come here.
Speaker 3: I always dreamed of being in a place like this,
somewhere away from home, somewhere where I could have my
own fun, my own adventures. Are you having fun? JD
laughs and he says not all the time. Right now,
It's okay.
Speaker 2: Are you having adventure? That would be an understatement. She
reaches over and kind of pats your knee. At least
you know there are different things adventure and fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've learned that. Are you having.
Speaker 2: Con She leaves her hand at the she almost was
ready to like poor hand away, but at the asking
of that question, she leaves it there for a second.
I believe I am. And she pushes up, and she
uses kind of like your leg to push herself up
as she goes to rouse Molly and Schmendrick, and you
just hear her whisper into each of their ears. It's time.
Speaker 3: It's time. I'll stand up too, and uh yeah, I
get ready to go.
Speaker 2: Roll me and investigate. As you walk towards the tent, Okay, I'm.
Speaker 3: Gonna use my luck on that one.
Speaker 2: Okay two successes. Bank one of those successes for later,
because you're only gonna need one of them. But this
is a time based thing. And just before you got
like everybody kind of ducks into the flap of the
tent as the lady holds it, and as Schmendrick goes
in and Molly goes in, the lady looks you for
just a second, and then she herself kind of crawls in.
You look around the road for a moment, and you
hear the ring I feel it too. Something's wrong.
Speaker 3: What do you think it is? I do not know.
Speaker 2: I can not see, and that is concerning I should
be able to see.
Speaker 3: Do you think someone knows we're coming?
Speaker 2: You hear that that pause again as you've realized that
the pause is the ring is like agreeing with like
half of what you said, and then basically answers, I
believe they know we are here because they are.
Speaker 3: I like to the rest of the group, and just
I think we should be going.
Speaker 2: They look for a moment, and you can tell now
just with a brief you know you're gonna carry over
from your earlier investigation that as you peek into the
tent to tell them this, you see that there is
no longer a rise and fall coming from the ferryman's chest.
He has passed in those moments where they entered the
tent and you were outside with the ring. But as
you peek and look in, you see along the walls
of the tent you see a figure appear in shadow,
a figure at the back wall appear in shadow, two
figures on the left wall appear in shadow, And as
the other companions turn to look back at you, you
can tell immediately that none of them have seen it.
And just as the ring is about to raise the alarm,
you JD saw it before the ring, You felt it
before the ring. As you see these figures that must
be ringing the tent and their silhouettes cast against the
projection of the white walls, what do you do in
this moment? Because you only have one who's the closest
to me, they're all pretty much equidistant because they're all
right by the If you wanted to say, who's like
just incrementally closer to you, the lady would be the Lady,
than Shamndrick, than Molly.
Speaker 3: Well. I'll reach to the lady then and try and
pull her towards me, away from these shadow figures. And
as I'm doing so, I'm gonna yell.
Speaker 2: Run and in that moment, and with that run friends,
if you will. Atari Twilight is based upon the player's
tails at the table, but also to augment such things,
we have songs to play, So if you could do
me a favor, go to our playlist Atari Twilight Keystones
and go to track number four if you would, and
play Little Kansas. And as Kansas starts to play, carry
on my wayward Son, you grab the lady, and she,
in turn, almost like a chain, grabs Schmendrick, and Schmendrick
grabs Molly. But when Schmendrick does so, he is excited,
and you hear a pop and a cry from Molly
as he basically juices her up a little bit. As
you pull everybody out, roll me a force as JD
pivots from the book smarts to the physical smarts in
this moment now has three successes. You can bank two
of those, please, So if I ask you to make
a force roll, you have two banked, and you pull
everybody free, just as the tent collapses behind you. The
walls seem to be cut and all of the supporting
poles fold and fall in as they were designed to
do whenever you're putting the tent up. But unfortunately this
was a moment of ambush, and as those the last
of the tent poles fall, you pull it. Molly comes
out shrieking from the shock that Schmendrick gave her. But
you are all free of this structure, no one trapped inside.
As you see five robed figures. These are figures that
are dressed identically to the ones that you saw and
overheard talking about killing the bishop. And as they are
all staring and looking at you, it is at this
time that everyone notices that there is a group of
three people traveling the road toward you. The woman in
the lead is riding a white horse, and you know
her from sight as the bishop. Just as you make
eye contact with her, you see more robed figures fall
upon her. They seem to come from the road itself.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, so how far away does it look like
the bishop is from us?
Speaker 2: Fifty feet there?
Speaker 3: And there there are three that kind of aperate from the road,
and they're directly next to her.
Speaker 2: Yes, they seem to be focused specifically on the bishop.
You see that the two retainers, it looks like that
the bishop is with immediately kind of shock and shout
and surprise. They do not react right away. They seem
to be legitimately shocked. If this was D and D.
This is a surprise round on them. And in this
moment you see that the other five of these robed
figures that were ringing the tent and causing it to
collapse now.
Speaker 3: Turn their attention to you and your group when they.
Speaker 2: See that their little ruised has failed and no one
is stuck beneath the tents flaps as they realize they
are now standing four v five. But of course they've
got friends down the road. But JD, in this moment
of mania, what do you do as the rest of
your companions turned Schmendrick appears to raise his hands and
begin to wiggle his fingers. You're not sure what that
is going to do. Molly pulls out a frying pan,
and the lady pulls next to you and stands there,
and you see for a moment a flash of purple
across her forehead. But what do you do in this
moment as the ring awaits your command? Because you are
the jaunting dude, you are JD. What do you do,
my friend?
Speaker 3: Well? I think JD is under the impression that the
Bishop needs to be like SA saved at all costs.
At the very beginning of this Randall has explained the
people that I could watch and learn from, the ferryman
and the Bishop were the two that I chose. And
so with the ferryman gone, I think JD is figuring
that the Bishop is is needed more now than maybe ever,
and so he's just gonna turn and fall on sprint
towards the.
Speaker 2: Bishop absolutely, roll me a move, roll to see if
you can make it. Only one success is required here
because in the age of all ways, every stride is
the perfect stride. And I got to bank one of those.
Getting quite the deposit here for your roles. I'm sure
I raise my goodness it. Yeah, he didn't mean it thice. God,
it's been a terrible there. So as you are running
towards there, you are able to make it into like
within arm's reach of the white horse, almost like able
to reach up and grab the bridle of the horse.
But as you do so, and as you're running towards
you see the bishop and she pulls out what looks
to be half scepter and half mace. As she brings
this down and like absolutely crowns one of the robed
figures that's on her right, and you see that the
robe dense inward as if nothing is inside it. And
then as she pulls our eyes wide with shock as
she pulls the scepter back, you see the hood kind
of reinflate to fill what would have been a voided
space because of the head. But you could tell that
the bishop received no purchase from that. You see that
one of the other on the opposite side of the bishop,
the shadowed figure there has what looked to be long
shadowed talons coming from beneath the cuffs of the robe.
And you realize that the bishop is unaware of this
surprise attack that is coming against her as they come
down and are getting ready to enter her flesh.
Speaker 3: What do you do?
Speaker 2: JD. You are the only one that can act in
this moment.
Speaker 3: I can get to one of one of these rubbed figures.
You think you can? Absolutely, I'm good because I have
been an athlete my entire life. I Am going to
full on just football tackle one of them.
Speaker 2: And how why does the road The road is a
typical two lane highway with a little bit of kind
of like a gravel off, you know, on each side
that seems to also be a part of the road.
But as soon as the asphalt itself is like a
two lane plus a couple of feet highway, so it's wide.
You're in the very middle of it too, You're right
at the lines.
Speaker 3: My hope here is that if successful on the tackle,
that I could get them close to being off of
the road, and maybe on the next turn that I
could get them push them off if they from the road,
and try and remove them from this absolutely.
Speaker 2: So this tackle your your ultimate design is to get
them off of the road, right right. Okay, So with
this tackle you have some banked already, but roll me
a force and you may add those other ones to
it if you wish.
Speaker 3: Okay, M damn, it's been it's been something. Well, I
think two is good. I'll keep my two banked ones.
Speaker 2: Okay. I tell you that you got two banked, right,
give me one of them and you get somebody off
the road.
Speaker 3: Okay, So there's the one. I moved it from two
to one, so it turns it into three successes.
Speaker 2: So that extra kind of banked force comes from the
ring itself. And just as you hit perfect spear on
shoulder to gut tackle, as you kind of drive into
this road figure, you start to feel as if you're
jumping into a sheet on the clothesline, like there is
literally nothing behind it. But then you feel the rings
power surge through your arm and down your ring finger,
and all of a sudden there is substance underneath you,
and there is surprise as you hear a shock and
a grunt of pain as you absolutely though this is
not the football design play that you wanted. You tackle
and punt this person across the road. They roll and
they hit the gravel and spin down into the loose
grass along the forested side of the road. And as
soon as they do that, they begin to scream. You
don't have any time for that. As you kind of
pull yourself up and look around the rings power surging
through you. What do you do as chaos descends upon
the camp and more figures begin to operate from the ground,
and they're right on the lines too. Now you can
see as they kind of come between almost like a
thin sheet between the split yellow lines, and then they
form into a three dimensional shape. You are joined in battle,
my friend. The one ring is with you. You have
friends that are fighting towards the tent, but you and
you alone have the bishop in front of you, who
seems at this point to be being drug from her horse.
What do you do?
Speaker 3: Going to go straight towards the one that's trying to
grab at the bishop?
Speaker 2: Okay, roll me another force and then we can decide
what that looks like. Upon your success, you are able
to get there the other you're still screams coming from
off the side of the road. As this you can't
even see what's going on, but the screams are so
disturbing that even the ring seems a little off put
by what it's hearing, but that is of no concern
at this moment. As you reach this figure who currently
is scraping talents across the Bishop's neck. As this creature
pulls her from the horse, you see bright lines of blood.
As she's not screaming. She is fighting like a fucking
banshee as she's bringing this thing down, but she just
can't get any purchase. It just keeps hitting like an
empty burlap sack, and you can hear her cursing in
the most polite terms. You hear several garnets and a
you know, dad zooks even if she's getting testy. But
as she continues to do this, you get to this creature,
and because of the ring's influence, you can feel the
physical form beneath it as you yank this creature away,
and but the bishop continues her fall and hits the
ground off of her horse. Now, but she seems no
worse for wear than other of those lines of blood
that she has on her neck. My friend, you are
locked in kind of like a wrestling kind of lock
up with this robed figure.
Speaker 3: As because with the ring, I'm feeling some form of
like physical does it feel.
Speaker 2: Human humanoid? Definitely feels humanoid.
Speaker 3: You can't feel that.
Speaker 2: I don't mean to be vague, but you're kind of feeling.
You can definitely feel the robe, like the material of
the robe, and you can feel like the physicality beneath it.
But the person could have fur, could have scales, could
have things like that.
Speaker 3: But sure, yeah, you know, yeah, I'll yell to the bishop,
get to the others, and then if I can, I'm
going to try. And I'm trying to figure out, like
what would be a weakness of these things if they're
taking clubs to the head and nothing's happening to them.
But maybe their power is the fact that they are
shrouded in this darkness, in this cloak. So if is
there a way to like remove the cloak from them
a class that I could rip at.
Speaker 2: There's definitely if you want to pull the hood down,
you could. Their hoods are fully up. You can see
that the robes are kind of monkish in that they're
bound with a cord around the waist. There's no like
zipper or opening, so it doesn't it's not a robe
in the traditional sense that can be opened from the
front like a jacket. They're kind of you put them
on over your head and then I'll.
Speaker 3: Tear at the Potentially Maybe what's protecting them from any
physical type of damage, maybe is the fact that they
are you know, this cloak is magical in some way,
So I will try to, yeah, remove the hood, pull
the hood off the potential head of this this person,
this thing.
Speaker 2: Absolutely and with your role for us, you're able to
do that. And as you yank the hood down, the
ring says in your mind, that's it, that's it, as
it realizes the realization that you've already made that the
protection is coming from the robes themselves. And as you
pull it down, you see the exposed face of a
human female that you do not recognize, and she seems
incredibly shocked that any of this has happened. And for
a moment, you are looking into the face of maybe
a nineteen twenty year old who is in complete and
abject terror of you. Do you continue your attack? Do
you throw her from the road? What do you do?
My friend? In this moment, you have a surprise round.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to remove upon from the board, and
I'll remove her from the road.
Speaker 2: You turn and throw her off the road, and as
you do so, she begins to scream as well. And
you hear the ring in your mind say it couldn't
be hoped or whatever that means.
Speaker 3: Okay, good good.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna say, just to kind of keep you
in positioning. The five that were around the ten have
now ringed the companions by the fire, but Schmendrick seems
to be able to keep them at bay with his sparks,
and Molly has actually picked up a log from the
fire now to accompany her frying pan as she's holding both,
and it seems as if the light maybe is keeping
them back, but it's certainly not hurting them. It's not
something that is they can't get into if they wanted to.
It's just something that seems to give them pause for
a second. The bishop at your feet begins to convulse.
Oh no, how many are around us now? You can't tell,
You can't tell. But the two retainers are fighting something.
But there is a swirl of darkness at this end.
As your fifty feet removed from the fire and it's
still darkest before dawn. Here it's almost as if this
darkness has many hands, as many teeth, as many voices.
And it's now you surrounded by the little bit of
glow that the ring is producing, and the convulsing form
of the Bishop at your feet. She is fully armored
in what looks like plate mail golden and again her
scepter lies beside her, but you can see there's foam
on her lips as she begins to shake.
Speaker 3: Wow. Well, I'll run over to her and try and
tend to her if I can see if there's any
thing that's like, I don't know, causing this, like if
if it's the wounds, if it's something that's maybe like
a weapon that was like stuck inside of her, something
like that.
Speaker 2: It's again, because of your earlier successes, you can tell,
and because you saw and you rolled the success with
the way way earlier with the fairy Man, you can
see the same type of black veinage, only this time
it seems as if it's advanced. There's either something about
the bishop or there's something about this poison that seems
to be much faster acting than what has taken the
life of the faery man. She cannot speak, but her face,
even in this kind of contorted grimace of pain, is
still so beautiful. She reaches a hand towards you, and
you can see that each of her fingertips blows a
golden light, and she has her hands splayed as she
reaches to you, her eyes wide.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'll go up. Does it seem like she's trying
to place it like on my chest, my shoulder, trying
to get my hand to touch her like? Does it
seem like I can tell any intent by that? Sure?
Speaker 2: You know what, roll me a comprehend here as you
look at this, or I'll take charm too, because this
is kind of like a physical type of you know, wow,
son of a bitch, are you rolling? Yeah? You can
tell that she's not reaching towards you specifically, but she
is reach for your hand as she puts these.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll take it for sure. That's what I'm going
to try and do. That's what I thought she was doing,
but I want to make sure.
Speaker 2: Yep. As you grab hold, you feel a surge of
power go through you and you hear the ring gasp.
This is the second time in less than a day
that you've heard shock and surprise come from the ring,
and the Bishop's eyes are wide and you can see
that almost the entire whites of her eyes are now
clouded with this darkness. Her lips are completely black, her
tongue is black in her mouth, and she spits out
to you you can't use it, carry it, and blood,
bile or darkness itself begins to pour from her mouth.
Speaker 3: Uh okay, I mean, I'm I know what she's talking about,
but it's so shiny.
Speaker 2: Is that what JD's thinking is like this power shouldn't
just be carried? Is that what that is that the
type of approach or.
Speaker 3: Well, I think he's thinking like I can't use it,
but it's the thing that's helping me stop the things, right,
Like it's the without it, without the ring, I'm unable
to No one's able to do anything about these cloaked figures.
And so he feels like if he how do I
how do I even warn this? JD has almost been like, uh,
not powerless, but powerless in a sense to deal with
his fears and with them he's able to do something
about it, or it seems like it's like a conduit
to help him. And if he doesn't use it. He's
unable to do some of these things, like what was
the wolf kind of creature, the gomork or whatever. I
don't think he would have been able to stop that
without the ring. And uh, he'll he'll look down and say,
if if I get rid of it, do you do
you live?
Speaker 2: She looks at you, this this black darkness coming down
her chin and now dripping across her her golden plate.
I am dead regardless. But it comes out with pops.
As she's forcing air and voice through this liquid chokes
and gasps and spit. You can see it kind of
hitting the road in front of you.
Speaker 3: Okay, well that you.
Speaker 2: Hear you hear the voice in your head. Yeah, you
hear the voice in your head. Almost simultaneous say as
the ring says, she's giving you something. I don't know
what it is. It's power. It does not work with me.
Speaker 3: So JD's thinking, you don't know what it is, because
it's good.
Speaker 2: Maybe bad.
Speaker 3: The one ring isn't something that you can just leave behind.
You can't just drop it and keep it on the road,
because then there's no telling who might find it and
pick it up. But she said, can you remind me
what she said. She says, I can't use it, but
you can carry it. I can or cannot.
Speaker 2: You can't use it, but you can carry it.
Speaker 3: Carry it. Okay, okay, And under your idea, here's me talk.
When I communicate with the ring? Is that me using it?
Or using it is literally putting it on my finger
and going invisible.
Speaker 2: You would think that it would be the ladder, It
would be the actual application of the magic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, Well, shoot, if I know that she's gone,
I need to go help try and protect these the
other three.
Speaker 2: You can for a brief moment there is an alley
basically between you and them, as the kind of like
the fire axes a buffer to keep it an opening
for you know, you can get to the others right now.
But you can tell that the retainers of the bishop
are in a bad, bad way. You can see them
being drug off the road, like you see that the
robed figures seem to like the cut of your jib,
and they are trying to throw the retainers off the
road as well.
Speaker 3: Oh man, okay, but the retainers are closer to me
in distance than the Molly Schmandrick and uh, what's the
other person's name? The lady. Ah the yah, I'll go,
I'll go try and help the lady.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm I'm thinking of something else. I'm
all the h Yeah, I think it's called the lady though,
because i'll butcher that all day.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna put the lady so I also I'll
go towards the retainer that's closest to me to try
and like counter there pulling the retainer off the road,
and you know, get them off the road instead. Okay,
roll me a force, yep one.
Speaker 2: Okay, you are able to keep the retainer from being
pulled off of the road. But you can see now
that that where you couldn't identify how many there were before,
now that it's you're kind of more. You're deeper into
this kind of crowd of shadowy fists and figures that
are beginning to clutch at you too. I might add,
you can see there are no fewer than two dozen
of them here. Oh goodness, the horses are becoming spirited.
The bishop's horse seems to be very well trained, but
the retainer's horses seems to have been frightened. One of
them runs off the road, and you immediately hear it
begin to scream. It's like winnies and naize of absolute pain.
As it you can just see the form of it,
the bulk drop off the road as it drops to
the ground.
Speaker 3: So there are a total of like twenty four of
these shadows creatures.
Speaker 2: At least you can just see that. There is just
a horde of them that seem to be continuing to
appear in the middle of the road and creeping and
pushing towards you.
Speaker 3: Okay, great, So I know that stepping onto the road
is a dangerous thing, but as I'm watching people get
removed from the road, removing yourself from the road is
equally as dangerous. What provid do you have?
Speaker 2: If you have a guide, you're fine. I think our
guide died, so yeah, maybe that's there's another one. I
just there's another person that can use but unfortunately they're
not here. They have other shit, right, yeah.
Speaker 3: Right, all right, I will. I mean, so JD's thinking like,
we got to go. We've got to get off of
this thing somehow, and I'm uncertain how. But it also
at the same time, the fire is what's keeping them
somewhat at bay. So I'm going to try and get
this retainer, like, pull this retainer and get them to
run with me towards that fire. I'll tell you this.
Speaker 2: You can get one of the retainers and do exactly
what you said, but you will definitely be sacrificing the other.
There's no way to free them both.
Speaker 3: I think there's yeah, there's no good answers here. There's
only there's only a little bit of chances here that
we can you survive with you, You can survive with
I guess, is all I'm trying to say. So, yeah,
I'll keep one retainer and unfortunately sacrifice the other in
that way and run towards the fire.
Speaker 2: You are able to get there, but about ten feet
from the fire, you hear the retainer cough and as
you look over, you see him and black comes out
over his chin and he looks at you in absolute fright,
and you can see the scratches on his face along
his arms that were exposed. What's happening as he drops
to his knees, and you see him begin to convulse
as he he makes it to the fire, but again
is in the same way as the bishop. Okay, the
others look at you and they're they're wild eyed with panic.
They don't seem to be fearful, the creatures, but they
they now see what they're up against, this incredible might
that is like this battalion of darkness that is falling
in on all of you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we need to the Bishop's gone. We need to
go as soon as possible. How do we get off
the road?
Speaker 2: You all look around and everybody seems to not Molly's,
you know, wild eyed with no suggestions. The lady is
wild eyed, no suggestions, and Schmendrick's the same way. But
then he looks at all of you and says, grab hens. Everyone,
grab hands, and he reaches and you see him grab
Molly's hand, and you see him loop arms with the lady,
but he does not take Curb by the hand. And
you see him put his hand around the necklace.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'll join join hands with them, grab the lady's hand.
Speaker 2: You see schmendrick yank the chain from his neck, and
as soon as he does, you all begin to fall.
Speaker 3: Everybody.
Speaker 2: If you could go to your Spotify playlist, and I
don't know, why don't you play a little track number
three of Pink Floyd if you will, because.
Speaker 3: You made it a note? Am I thinking that the
lady didn't grab Schmndrick's hand because that's the hand that
could cause the sparks that could hurt her. Or is
does JD think of something different?
Speaker 2: No, that's absolutely one of the reasons. You can see
that Mollie didn't have a problem grabbing his hand, but
at the same time he didn't want to have that
direct contact with the lady, and he also used that
hand to pul the necklace from his But you don't
you think that he could have done both. Basically, you
see he was the deliberate, deliberate purpose or act to
not grab the lady's hand.
Speaker 3: Would in the moment that he rips the necklace off
and like removes it from his body. I have if
I were to have tried to grab it, would it
stop us from doing this from falling?
Speaker 2: Grab the necklace? You don't know? Do you want to
give it a shot?
Speaker 3: I mean, it's the four leaf clover? You know it
means sure is? Yeah? I mean I have a banked move.
Can I use it to trend? Snag it?
Speaker 2: You absolutely can? And as the crystalline four leaf clover
falls towards the fire, the last thing that you see
in this space is JD's hand reaching out, the hand
that doesn't have the ring on it as you grab
hold of the four leaf clover, and you feel the
edges of each of the four leaves, and you can
even feel the raised never say never on the back
as you all disappear. Yes, you awaken. You're not sure
how long it's been, but you are in what looks
like a burned out forest, once lush and beautiful, but
now the victim of some type of wildfire. And as
you're standing in the corpse of this once great and
lush area, the others are standing there and looking around,
even in the You're not sure how long you've been here,
but it couldn't have been too long. You're all already
kind of stained with soot as the ash is blowing
along the breeze, and Schmendrick looks around, Will are we.
Speaker 3: Ah we? I was hoping you could tell us.
Speaker 2: Ollie shakes her head at both of you. I don't know,
and the lady looks up and she turns around and
there are tears on her cheeks, but they seem brighter,
more metallic, almost like a mercury or a So this
is Fantasia. What is left of it. Something has happened,
something terrible. We must get to the Ivory tower.
Speaker 3: Do you know the way.
Speaker 2: She nods? And you see a hesitancy about her for
a moment, and the ring whispers in your ear. She
is not what she seems?
Speaker 3: What do you mean she is no girl? Who is she? Then?
I believe we are going to find out.
Speaker 2: And in front of you, you see this beautiful girl
drop to her hands and knees, and within two breaths,
one in, one out, a beautiful unicorn stands in front
of you. Schmendrack creeps forward and picks up the over
dress and shoves it into his pack and turns back
to you. Surprise.
Speaker 3: Ah, I think JD's like, got a loss for words,
He's like, what happened? Just happened.
Speaker 2: The unicorn looks at you, and you hear the mouth
does not move because I don't like the mister ed
visual of it. But you can hear in your mind
the unicorn say it's still me, It's real me, And
you can tell there is a concern that that will
change your opinion of her.
Speaker 3: Okay, this is a lot. Let's get to the tower.
Speaker 2: She looks at you, looks at all of you. It's
not near, not by fantagious standards. Follow me, and she
begins to walk through the dust. Do you follow, my friend?
The ring is not objecting. The Ring's just quiet.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: So as you all begin and walking. Six months later,
you see the Ivory Tower, and upon its peaking along
the horizon, the Unicorn turns to you. I told you,
I told you it was close. And Schmendrick comes up
and he pats your back. We did it, We found it.
There took a bitch so walk and a half. We
have two different definitions of close. Apparently, yeah, you're young,
Schmendrick says, is yeah, really, And so you all are
able to After this six month journey across several or
at least the main continent of Fantasia, you arrive at
the Ivory Tower, and as you walk towards it, you
realize that it too is stained. It still holds much
of its brightness, but it is as if its tip
was a candle. It's soot and cracked and off center.
It's geometry is wrong, and as you get closer you
see at the base of the tower there are two
gravestones and nothing else.
Speaker 3: Anything written on the stones or to indicate who it is.
Speaker 2: As you all get closer. Yeah, and it's been a
long time, and you know, you've come to know Molly
Grew and Schmendrick, you know, over these six months, you know,
and they are exactly who you thought they were from
their beginning. Molly is sarcastic but incredibly invested. She has
been mothering the shit out of you for the last
six months. She was making sure that any holes in
your clothes are fixed, you know, almost in the middle
of the night. If a jacket, you know, a sleeve
gets torn, it's fixed the next day. Schmndrick looks upon you,
even though he is nearly twenty years older than you,
he looks upon you as a peer or even an
older brother, you know, asking you questions strange things like,
you know, did atari ever take off?
Speaker 3: You know, was it something? Was it a hit?
Speaker 2: Did they you know, just just questions, you know, about
what you would believe to be, like questions from your youth.
You seem like his knowledge of Garrett doesn't really progress
since like eighty three or four, like he's right around
he gets capped off right around there. So over the
six months you've kind of been able to figure out
exactly when he left Garrett.
Speaker 3: And the lady.
Speaker 2: The Unicorn has, you know, been a constant companion. And
again the Ring doesn't offer any type of condemnation of
the Unicorn. It's just it's almost like the Ring was
off put that it didn't recognize the illusion at the beginning,
and so that's kind of strained the relationship apparently. But
they are exactly as you said they would be thought
they would be. As you guys all approach the Ivory Tower,
you see these two tombstones, and you see that over
one of them, which is a little grander than the other,
it simply says, here lies the Empress. And you can
tell that there was a name written down, but the
name seems to have been burned and actually filed off
for some reason. It's the stone is smooth there, but
you could tell that it's been cut before, but the
name is no longer legible. And in the other grave
you see but one word, and it says Bastion.
Speaker 3: Okay, in the six months that we've been traveling, has
there been any anything new with the power or that
the bishop like put pushed onto JD.
Speaker 2: Nothing? In fact, you're you the Ring assures you that
there is a power in there, but it just simply
can't tell you anything more about it.
Speaker 3: You don't.
Speaker 2: You don't detect any type of like sub refuge from
the ring. You know, it's definitely being honest. You two
cannot not be honest with one another.
Speaker 3: You don't.
Speaker 2: There's no manipulation there or no you know, word play
or anything. It simply says it knows it's there, but
it doesn't know what it does. And so you know,
it hasn't been able to offer it too much more
in the way of explanation or utilization or anything like that.
But when you look at these graves, h roll me
another investigator, man, oh ma'am so so much for failure
in this one. Uh, when I don't know the meaning,
he doesn't mean it. When you look on the tombstones,
you see behind the one that is labeled the Empress,
you see a separate like a chiseled scrawl there cut
into the rock, and it says, find the dark tower.
There you will learn the enemy's design. Only you can
do this JD. And it is signed she who sits
the Mobius throne.
Speaker 3: When it says only I can do it, do I
get the impression that if anyone else is with me,
I will be unable to or you don't get that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like this has fallen to you, but
not you alone. If that makes sense, it's it's it's your.
Speaker 3: War to win.
Speaker 2: But you know, soldiers are definitely something that'll be needed.
Speaker 3: Gotcha. I think Jad's tired too in six months of travel.
I'm got to travel some more to a dark tower.
But I'll look to the lady who is now just
in a different form. Have you ever heard of the
dark Tower?
Speaker 2: You can see she kind of shakes her man no,
and Molly shrugs her shoulders. But Schmndrick is looking at you,
and you can see the fear around the corners of
his eyes.
Speaker 3: I know that.
Speaker 2: We are getting farther away from the age, though I
don't know if I can get us back. I don't
control it. I'm not even sure if I can get
us to the tower.
Speaker 3: I think we need to go there. Well, I need
to go there. I know that.
Speaker 2: They all perk up, and each one of them declares
that they are with you for as long as they
are needed.
Speaker 3: Schmendrick, do you have any idea of the direction we
can head there.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow we will have to jump again. The tower has
many places, but it is never in Fantasia.
Speaker 3: Okay, can you do that for us?
Speaker 2: Yes, I can, my friend. This is where you need
to tell me what happens. The next morning, Schmendrick is
able to jump again. And when you arrive in a
new world, there on the horizon is the dark Tower.
But it always seems to be the same distance away
when you travel towards it, and mornings you will wake
up and it'll be completely gone, and Schmendrick will jump again,
and there it'll be on the horizon. But over the
next thirteen years, what do you do? Your friends stay
with you, the Lady the Unicorn, Molly schmendh They are
with you through thick and thin, through the trials of environment,
and you know beasts that are mad with hunger, that
attack in the night. Together you are able to survive.
And through these thirteen years, you watch as Schmendrick gets older,
as Molly becomes a gray haired grandmother as opposed to
a mother. The Lady the Unicorn does not change at all,
and neither do you. You are fourteen years old. Even
for the next thirteen.
Speaker 3: I think he JD through this time has been trying
to figure out this puzzle of why I can't get there,
and I think maybe he's known, or thinks he's known
for a bit. He's on the next jump when we're
of the closest we've ever been to it, you know,
I assume that that's what it's the closest, And then
as we move towards it, we get further away. I'll
look to the others and say, I think I think
I have to go by myself. I don't think you
guys can come with me, not for this part.
Speaker 2: They look hurt.
Speaker 3: If if I had it my way, you could. But
we've been doing the same thing for a long time.
You've all given me so much, and I've been able
to provide nothing for you. I don't think I can
keep you trapped in this loop for any longer. Roll
me a charm, big shocker.
Speaker 2: They all look at you and they nod, and Schmandrick
says they don't know if it would work. But my friend,
we will do whatever you say. We will wait for
you here.
Speaker 3: I hope I can come back. Don't wait too long
if I can't. If I don't make it just I
don't know, try and be happy.
Speaker 2: They all move forward and they all fall into you
with these incredibly meaningful There are hugs that are only
shared between those that truly know another, they truly love
one another. It's the hugs the keystones give one another.
And the three of them clutch you like you are
there everything, and in many ways you are. But they
realize that you're right, and Schmndrick assures you we will wait,
but not too long. God speed, my friend.
Speaker 3: Thank you all so much, and I will turn around
and leave.
Speaker 2: Over the next week, you are getting closer to the
tower than you've ever been. And since I'm not going
to ask you to roll and investigate, because I already
know what's going to happen. One night, when you are
sitting at your fire, if you have one, in the dark,
if you don't, you see behind you, maybe a half
day's ride back, another fire, and you smell upon the breeze,
sandal wood, gun smoke, leather, and then it's gone. And
the next night you see the campfire again, but it's closer,
maybe by an hour or two, and you smell the
gun smoke, the sandal wood, the leather, and the next
night those are still.
Speaker 3: Do I get a sense that on this third night,
that there's a way of getting to it.
Speaker 2: It's back the way you came, and it seems to
be following your path to the letter.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm I have a job to do, and that's
to get to this tower. And potentially, I think as
although JD's heart and mind is like wanting to get
to someone again, right, it's been weeks that I've been alone,
I think maybe he stops himself from doing so because
it's the path he's taking that's allowing them to continue on.
If he deviates from that path, maybe the things that
are supposed to happen can't happen. And so he waits.
He sits at his campfire, staring into it every night,
thinking about now all the friends he's made through his journey,
and each time he has to try, every night gets harder.
But he has to try and remind himself that that's
who he's doing it for, it's not just about him,
and so he'll he'll fall asleep that night and he
will continue on his track towards the dark tower. It
is on.
Speaker 2: You believe you're less than a day from the tower.
By the you know you're able to kind of extrapolate
your distance and being able to make it where and
each day you know, you can see that you're getting
closer and closer, and here on this final day you
realize that within the day you'll get there. But you
have to drop down into a ravine and basically climb
up the other side, almost literally climb. It's very, very steep,
but at the top of it is the tower. And
as you go down into the crevice and you are
climbing up, roll me a move roll and I believe
you have some banks, so you can use them if
you want.
Speaker 3: But if you want to use my move banked, I
do have a force, but I'll.
Speaker 2: Get you fantastic, Okay. So you are making great time
and as you are coming up on the opposite side,
maybe like it's a weird it's almost like a V
like you came down on one side and then you're
coming up the other. But the v itself is only
about one hundred feet across from where you went down
to where you're climbing up on the other side of
the V. And as you're climbing, you hear from the
distance where you were where you started your descent. You
hear flag, and it echoes through the ravine and the crevice.
Flag Flag, Flag.
Speaker 3: JD hasn't heard that name in a long time. And
I his relationship with Flag is, or at least was
almost at all times like where Flag was the bad
guy for a very short time, he was I think
at best neutral. That's very fair. He also doesn't. I
mean he's I think he's just going to continue to climb.
He's going to try and get away from whatever that is.
Thinking that it's trying to it's another test, it's another challenge,
is trying to detract him from what he's supposed to do.
Speaker 2: You keep climbing and you hear a gunshot, but you
hear a ricochet and it's about a foot to your
hand as you're you're not like free climbing. It's you
could walk up it, but it's almost like walking up
like a ski slope like you are. And you hear
it ring off one of those rocks.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'll shout out back, it's not Flag. Are you
looking or just shouting? Hum Around.
Speaker 2: You see a man standing with a gun drawn that
you recognize, wearing a long tan coat, a red kind
of handkerchief, and a cowboy hat. You cannot see anything
from the lips up, but you see the barrel still smoking,
pointed in your direction. As a reader in a bookworm JD.
You would know this person as Roland the Gunslinger.
Speaker 3: And remind me, because again it's been long. I gave
Rolling the bullet, right, That's who it was? Or who
was it that I gave the bullet to.
Speaker 2: You gave donnav and the bullet.
Speaker 3: That's who it was. That's who it was. I'm trying
to remember all this stuff me too, buddy. I'll look
to him and I'll just say, uh, you mind pointing
the gun down.
Speaker 2: You can see the lips smile. Stop, you ain't going
to the tower?
Speaker 3: Why is that?
Speaker 2: Because I said so?
Speaker 3: It ends here?
Speaker 2: Flag good?
Speaker 3: It's not flag. I'm not flag. You're always someone different,
aren't you. What would convince you?
Speaker 2: Nothing?
Speaker 3: Has flag ever been in two places at once, at
the same time together, two flags in the same location.
The smile fades. How can I answer that? Well? I
can because I'm not flag and I've been with flag.
Speaker 2: The proclamation that you aren't flagged, but you know, flag
doesn't seem to help your situation much in Roland's eyes,
as he just continues to aim, this is happening in
one way.
Speaker 3: Or the other.
Speaker 2: You stop right, stop you.
Speaker 3: It's always been the game. Flag, You're gonna kill somebody
you don't know? Nope, So where do we go from here?
Speaker 2: You get the sense that when he said nope, he
meant he's going to be just fine killing you because
he believes you to be flagging somebody that he knows.
You asked if he was comfortable killing somebody he doesn't know, Sure,
so he's not. He's not deterred by that. The Ring
does offer, though he means to do it.
Speaker 3: I know I have to get to that tower one
way or another. I know, and you know I can't
let you.
Speaker 2: I only know you from pages. The gun's barrel falters
a bit.
Speaker 3: What do you mean, I mean, until now you only
existed in words.
Speaker 2: The barrel straightens again, and you say, you ain't Flag.
Speaker 3: You talk just like him. That's the meanest thing you've
said to me this whole time. I don't think I'm
anything like him.
Speaker 2: Roll me a charm, and I'm gonna tell you this,
it's not one success on this one.
Speaker 3: Bummer. You hear the Ring say he doesn't have to
see us. No, but the bishop said, I can't use you,
and I haven't used you in fourteen years.
Speaker 2: I'm ready to go. I'm all rested up.
Speaker 3: You would say that always tempting.
Speaker 2: No, I haven't tempted you once and all this time.
I don't want to see you die, and I don't
want to be on the hand of some gun hand.
Speaker 3: Count of ten flag? Am I getting the sense here
that like I'm kind of in uh, I'm gonna die
unless I run type of thing.
Speaker 2: That's definitely what the ring thinks. If you want to
roll me a empathize, I will let you know exactly
what Roland's thinking. Should you succeed, might as well try. Yeah,
he's gonna fucking kill you, because of course you had
a success on that one. Yeah, he means to shoot you,
he seemed again with h it's almost like you know
Roland and you were able to read him a little
bit more than somebody you just met, which is strange.
But as you looked across and over to him, you
could tell that there was a moment where he had
just a fraction of doubt, but that's gone now. The
comment about him being nothing more than words seem to
absolutely solidify in his mind that he's got his man
and he means to drop you off that hill.
Speaker 3: Okay, well it seems like he got me, and I'm
gonna put the ring on and I'm going to run
roll me a move.
Speaker 2: You put the ring on, and just as you put
the ring on, it's almost as if you have a
like a there's a spasm that goes through your arm
as you activate the ring, and it's enough to kind
of like make you kind of pinch to your side
a bit. And just as you disappear and pinch to
your side right where you had the space you had
been occupying, three shots travel within about the space of
a quarter, going through what would have been your heart.
But they ricochet off the ground and the rock behind you,
these incredible ricochet spraying dirt and everything up, and you
see across the way Roland just starts spraying, but he
has no clue where you are, and he tracks in
the wrong direction, as if he's anticipating a movement to
the left, but you went to the right, and you
start to run up the hill and you can hear
him reloading and cursing and just screaming fly and you
just hear the boom boom boom, boom boom. Six shots
bone bone, bone, boom boom. As he just continues to
fire blindly, literally trying to hit you, and he's nowhere
near you. But it's a bit disconcerting. But you take
to the top of the hill and you realize that
he's either run out of ammunition or he's following because
he knows where you're going. He just can't see you.
Speaker 3: M hm, well, I think I'm just going to continue
to run towards the tower. I mean, JD doesn't have
other than he doesn't necessarily know what this power from
the Bishop does, and he's been either unable or can't
seem to get it to do anything through through this time,
and he knows like the dark Tower is where he
needs to go. That's what he's been doing for the
last fourteen years. Can't stop now, and it.
Speaker 2: Is, like we said, within the day. And so as
you climb up with that determination of a decade and
a half, basically in this pursuit, you make it to
the tower. But the tower itself has no door, has
no opening that you can see. But as you get closer,
you can see in the obsidian surface of the tower
almost like a liquid spill, like someone with petroleum painting
with oil as it kind of swirls and leaves like
a bit of rainbow where the light catches the different
discoloration of.
Speaker 3: The of the oil and whatnot.
Speaker 2: And as you approach you hear and see the tower
speak to you with a message that is a decade
and a half in the waiting, and it says, follow
the trail of war. When the battles the enemy has
deemed unwinnable, then and only then will you find the
family you lost. And in your mind you get the
sense of what not only this prophecy means, but the
person that left the prophecy meant. And you see the
books and the paperback exchange. You see the movies that
you sat down to watch and the television shows that
enraptured you as you, you know, were able to take
the travels of all of these great characters. But in
your mind you see each of these movies and books
and TV shows end very differently. As the heroes in
each of these tales are murdered before they can be heroes.
Speaker 3: They are put to dirt.
Speaker 2: They are unable to be the heroic art and force
and light that they needed to be. And you know,
beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the enemy, faceless
as they may be, is behind it all, and they
are weaning.
Speaker 3: The heroes from the world.
Speaker 2: The legends are dying, each of them with some subtle
shift of the tale, a new line that is added,
a new paragraph read, a new scene is entered into
these movies and these TV shows, and all of these
heroes like Optimist Prime, who is fantastical a cartoon? For
God's sakes, you see that they no longer reach that potential.
That the new stories written by the enemy are killing
them all before they become who they were meant to be.
There will be no charge of the Heroes, there will
be no legends of the paperback exchange. Unless you can
do something about it.
Speaker 3: Okay, I don't know what to do here, I Matt.
I think JD's thinking like, I've spent all this time
trying to get here and it's just been another I'm
being told to go somewhere else again.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: And does JD despair.
Speaker 2: It's been so long.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know that he has it in him
to do it all over again. He takes the ring off.
I think he sits back toward against the tower, and
he's gonna sit there. I don't know what else to
do here, and he's gonna play with the ring in
his hands, you know, flip it over, and I think
he's gonna attempt to set it down just on the
ground next to him, so it's no longer touching him.
Do you say anything to the ring? I think he
says bye, and he just leaves it be, and then
he's going to focus really hard, trying to trying to
sense that the light that the bishop like pushed into
his hand. And I think this is his last ditch
attempt to get somewhere he needs to be, and he's
he's going to try and like I guess, for lack
of a better term, dive, get somewhere else, use whatever
that power is to get somewhere that's not here.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, absolutely so. There is no response from the ring.
You don't get a feeling, you don't get a feeling
of sadness.
Speaker 3: Or you know, like a wait, wait wait, nothing like that.
Speaker 2: No voice, no no feeling, no auction, no event. You
set it down beside the dark tower, and there these
two mythical objects are at rest. And as soon as
you take off the ring, you can feel this flood
of light. Not to say that the ring didn't have it.
There was no darkness involved with the ring, but it's
as if the light itself was corked, was unable to flow.
And my friend, we are going to do what is
called a montage, which is a very eighties thing to
do here, and I would like everybody to, I don't know,
put on how about Sweet Child of Mine number ten,
which is the song of JD. As you take off
the ring and leave it behind, a ring that was
never meant to be JD's. Maggie never left the one
ring as one of the weapons of the paperback exchange.
She had left the hat of Sherlock Holmes. God knows
what happened to that, But the ring took its place
because it wanted out and JD. Well, JD was the
walking dude, and it knew it could get where it
needed to be. So no resistance is offered as it
is set down exactly where it needed to be. And
as the Bishop's light flies through you, you see Roland
rushing towards the tower, gun up. As he starts to fire,
the bullets go through your chest and hit the tower
behind you as you are leaning against it. And just
as you disappear the bullets finding no purpose in your
ghost like form, you hear the ring say goodbye, JD.
And you disappear, my friend, And for the next one
hundred years JD fights JD.
Speaker 3: You are on the wall built.
Speaker 2: As the fortress named for helm Hammerhand. As you defend
against the Orcs that are charging Helm's Deep, you look
around rome and investigate. Something is wrong, and something is
different here at Helm's Deep, the change that the enemy
has made, the change that will rob the legends of Aragorn,
King Theoden, all of the heroes that stood and made it.
At Helms Deep is no light on the eastern horizon.
You are it, and as you look around, dressed in
your own battle guard with the sword at your side
and a shield on your wrist, you see on the
battlements as the king looks down surveying the battle worm
Tongue is standing beside him.
Speaker 3: And you know.
Speaker 2: He does not make it this far in the book.
Speaker 3: What do you do, my friend? I'm gonna go try
and take out fucking worm Tongue. Okay, can you tell
me how you do it?
Speaker 2: You know what we're done? With all this, you're not
rolling anymore. Tell me how you do it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, I think I am.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna drive my sword through. I'll turn him
around from wherever he's standing, because JD's not going to
stab somebody in the back he wants. He's got to
make sure that he's doing it as potentially as honorable
as he can. But he's going to turn him around
and yeah, like stab him through the gut, and like
maybe a Tolkien esque type of thing, he's gonna whisper
in his ear. Darkness will not win this day.
Speaker 2: And as you take worm Tongue completely by surprise, a
character who was living on far more than borrowed time,
you run him through just as you said, and the
King momentarily goes to scream to defend his trusted advisor,
but then the shadow of the spell fades from him.
He looked healthy. He didn't look as he did before
with the corruption of worm Toung. That was different too.
Worm Toung was trusted but still had ensorcelled the king.
And as soon as Wormtung dies, the King knows that
his life was in danger, that helms Deep would have fallen,
and he looks at you. Thank you. What is your name?
Speaker 3: Just call me JD, and JD.
Speaker 2: Since I didn't make you roll for that, I'm certainly
not going to make you roll for this. You call
yourself JD, but my god, you cannot remember what that
stands for, jaunting something like that, And just as quickly
you are gone from this area. My friend, you are
standing in a burned out pit as years go by,
and the next flash of a great battles before you.
But in the interim between these there are several battles, skirmishes,
fought books that are written back to the way that
they had been, heroes that are saved from fates that
were not their own. And now you are at yet
another theater. As you sit there and you see this,
this burned out, destroyed building, as a huge army of
mythical creatures is aligned, and you can tell that they
are evil, and there are snakes that fly armored through
the sky, and you see that there is but one
man who is standing against this entire horde. He is
standing his body broken, the shield at his side cracked,
and you see him pull himself up as if he
intends to stand against this flood. But you no battle
you have been in countless fights. You know the words
that are supposed to come from stories. This is not
one you recognize though, But what you do recognize is
where you appear. Just off to the side, behind one
of the debris, you see one of those robed figures,
one of those ghost like figures you fought all those
years ago along Eternity Road, and it seems to be
casting a spell. You can see its fingers moving and
trailing these yellow lines through the air, but it does
it over and over again, and you can see that
this is doing something to this space. And you are
a veteran of these types of things, and you know
the changes here that it's coming from that individual.
Speaker 3: What do you do, my friend, Well, I remember that
the cloak was its ability to stay like incorporeal. So
I'm going to try and rip, like pull the hood
so that they become more like actual human again. And yeah,
try to interrupt this spell whatever they're doing.
Speaker 2: You are able to do just that as you pull
the hood up. It it's the act of doing that
where you just kind of pop out and pull this
hood back that causes whatever this person is to stop
casting this spell, and for a moment, they look so shocked,
and you see that yellow kind of haze that it
dominated from the spell removed, almost like a lens being
brought up from a filtered camera, and everything retains its
original hue, its original color, as the spell is no
longer present and no longer applied to this space. And
as the hood goes back, you see the creature melt
in the light of the day. Even as dim and
dull as it is, they don't seem to die as
much as they just cease to be. And in your hand,
one of the robes still exists, the one that was
the person was wearing, and you hold it, one of
countless ones that you have secured over the course of
your decades of battle. And you look down and you
see that the lone man is standing there against this horde.
Something calls you to stand with him. But what do
you do?
Speaker 3: My friend? Yeah, he's definitely going to as he jumps
from story to story, tale to tail becoming you know,
I guess heroes of these things, he's going to stand
back to back with this Yeah, with this hero and
help against this army.
Speaker 2: As you move down, you see the man. He looks
over at you and he is battered and bloody, and
he sees you, and there is such a look of
relief that there is still one that would stand with him,
and you see him kind of slump in, just knowing
that it's still futile. But there's someone here, There is
another person. And you hear barely, just a crackle. You
hear something that you couldn't make it out. It's too
weak for your ear. And you see the man touch
his own ear, and you hear distinctly on your left,
and you see these circles begin to appear in the sky,
as rings of fire begin to produce an army for
this man, this captain who stands before this horde as
you stand beside him, these heroes that some you recognize
from comic books, from the paperback exchange, but many you don't,
from an age yet to come, an age that JD missed.
But you all stand there and you face this enemy.
And this captain turns to you, turns to you all
as you assemble, and he says the words Afngers assemble,
and you charge with Captain America and the others as
you fight through the hordes of Thanos. You are with them,
You are with them, all JD. Every hero Arthur, every
hero that has stood against evil, JD has been there.
JD has saved them. JD has made his own name
part of the authors of these works. He has woven
his own tales, he has made his own heroes. He
has supported the very fabric of what it means to
be good in this place. And at the end, you
stand before an emerald city. You're not sure where you are.
It's been a hundred years, but that is something you
can't comprehend. It's not something that can be thought of
or figured. But something tells you you've been here before,
you finally found the road, that what you need is
inside that city, but you don't know what that is.
Someone looks up at you, Mitch.
Speaker 3: He turns and looks. There's a twenty year.
Speaker 2: Old young man with long blonde hair that's standing outside
of a yellow Volkswagen Beetle.
Speaker 3: You with us, Buddy, I think I just nod. Just
don't know why someone would call me that name, but yeah,
just look at him sternly and just give him a
nice nod.
Speaker 2: Strangely enough, it doesn't sound wrong, though, doesn't necessarily sound right,
but it doesn't sound wrong. If that makes any sense.
Speaker 3: Perhaps I've even been called different names for every place
I've been. It's just so, this is just my name
in this location.
Speaker 2: You have been called different names in every place that
you've been. You've gone by many, many names as you
walk through these different places, they've known you by different things,
the jaunting dude or the walking dude probably being the
most prevalent as your story has grown. But here you're
just Mitch for whatever reason. And the young man jumps
inside the Volkswagen Beetle and he yells out of the
rolled down windows, and I'm beginning my attack.
Speaker 3: Run.
Speaker 2: And as this battle rages outside of what you now
know to be the Emerald City in Oz, you see
the Volkswagen drive off towards the city along the road,
but you smell gun smoke, sandal wood leather. My friend,
you are in charge a general of an army. As
you look to your right and left, you see predominantly
black clad figures. But in many places you see the
same face as repeated over and over again. And there's
names whispered among them that don't really mean anything to you.
As you hear Jerry and Ben and Shannon, you hear
all of these names that whisper to you, that tell
you you know would exactly. You're not sure. There are
hints of the past, but your whole world for the
last hundred years has been lines and words. Is this
a story? Is it your story? Rule me a comprehend
And this is the last one I'm going to make
your role. You didn't fail a fucking roll entire session.
Does anybody realize that? Okay? Whatever, I love it, I
love it so much. You sit there, JD. You cannot
remember your name. You remember only the good that you
have done, the teachings of the Dark Tower, the saving
of the heroes. You know that you've done your duty.
You know that you have paid the iron price for
saving the heroes of Legend, the heroes of lore. But
in this moment, in front of this battle, you know
it is the last one. That your days of commanding,
your days of charging, your days of the muck, the Meyre,
the blood ends on this day. And in your pocket
you feel something, and as you pull it out you
see a crystalline four leaf clover. It catches the light
and it says never say never. Around you, your army
weights before you, the place you need to be for
this the last battle of JD. What do you do,
my friends or my friend in this moment as you
command the forces of good against a very bad wizard man.
Speaker 3: What a question. I am just going to which direction
where these smells coming from?
Speaker 2: Strangely enough, they were coming from in front of you.
Speaker 3: Yep, I'm going to lead my army towards this, towards
the Emerald City. And but I'm making my way towards
those smells.
Speaker 2: So the charges sounded, and the Army of JD charges
Emerald City. And as the battle progresses and the moments
of many of these pockets of fighting erupt all over
the place, as people fall on both sides, as which
is in the air blast with energy, as flying monkeys
begin to act.
Speaker 3: As an anti air.
Speaker 2: Anything that can happen in this fantastical world seems to
be a part of this battle. But JD, you are
able to fight through all of this. You are able
to look for that that leather, that gun smoke, and
it teachs you deep down inside the bowels of some.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: The building looks familiar, it looks it's the main building
here in the city. But you damn if you can
remember resemble something, but you are able to follow that
smell deep inside until you are in what looks like
a prison and one cell door remains open and you
don't know why, but your destiny awaits after one hundred
years of serving.
Speaker 3: I guess I'll I get the impression that that sells
for me.
Speaker 2: You don't believe that sells for anybody. And you can
believe whatever you would like. I have opened the door
for it. Please don't think I want you to walk in.
It's completely up to you.
Speaker 3: Well, I think at the end of everything, at the
end of all this, he looks down and sees the
you know, his necklace, and like a star, he wishes
upon it to see his friends when last time before
the end, and he'll yeah, He'll go inside the cell
and just sit back against the wall like you did
with the tower, ready to be done, and just wishes
his last wish. He wants to see his friends again.
Speaker 2: Then, my friend, is you go in and sit down
just as you described. The cell door remains open. But
as you slide down like you did so many years ago,
with your back to the dark tower, you close your
eyes and you open them again, and you are not
in a prison cell. You are in a throne room
and you see a bending and twisting chair in front
of you. A it doubles in on itself. It has
no line that ever ends. Somehow you know that this
is the mobius throne, and there sits upon it a queen,
and Heather looks down at you and says, and now
you understand that, my friends, is where we end. Atari
Twilight Keystone.
Speaker 1: Where right shit? Atari Twilight is an Unmade gaming production
and a proud member of the Unmade Gaming Podcast Network.
If you'd like to support our endeavors and get some
behind the scenes looks at upcoming projects, please join us
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If you've enjoyed this podcast, please take a minute to
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Thank you for joining us on this blast from the past,
and we'll see you next time. On Atari Twilight
Speaker 2: Puts stock composed, No problems, Still propose stock complet